Ulster, Northern Ireland or 'The North of Ireland'

Nomenclature for that part of the Union is quite the shibboleth, and as a conviction Unionist it is Ulster that is part of the United Kingdom (1). For Westminster politicians from the mainland, news journalists and the like it is Northern Ireland, whereas Republicans will insist on referring to it as 'the North', or the 'North of Ireland', the crystal clear implication being that the entire island should be ruled by Dublin.

And why drag up matters Ulster when the Fenians are not doing much killing at the moment and Westminster is not apparently intent on any new attempt to give the barge on which the good people of Ulster have been sold down the river on another hefty shove? Because of this interview in the 'graph with the head of Labour, Scottish Division, Wendy Alexander, covering Barnett, the West Lothian question et al:

"The message of the last 10 years is that the British constitution has proved infinitely more flexible than anybody had expected. I mean, are we also going to remove all the North Irish, are we going to remove London MPs for votes that are covered by the GLA? There is no simple answer here and I think we should allow Westminster to continue to act as the British parliament."

Nice to know she is such a doughty supporter of the Union. Given that her father (and that of brother Wee Dougie) is referred to as a Reverend, it seems reasonable to assume that she is not a Roman Catholic, or otherwise strongly identified with matters Hibernian.

(1). Yes, I am well aware that Ulster contains only six of the nine counties that comprise the historic province of Ulster, but then four départements in North West France continue to be called Bretagne, despite being shorn of Loire Atlantique in 1941 (by guess who...) , which département includes Brittany's historic capital of Nantes.

It could of course be a slip of the tongue, C. But given Ms Alexander's track record I would doubt it. If she was being honest and accurate her comment should read:

"The message of the last 10 years is that the British constitution has sustained and borne infinitely more corruption of its structure than anybody had expected. I mean, we have successfully gerrymandered England thus far and if we stop Scots MPs from voting on English-only matters we risk defeats on policies we are trying to impose on an effectively disenfranchised people. There is no simple answer here for Labour and I think we should allow Westminster to continue to act as the British parliament. This will allow Scots and Welsh Labour MPs can help the government to ram through legislation in England that frees up tax revenues that can then be spent on providing better health and education services in Scotland than can be provided in England."

Spooky- I have just had a letter from the Prefecture of the 'South West', or rather one of his minions (only taken three months) explaining what the role of a Regional Minister is, and a zero response as to how do we get to give 'regional government' an electoral madate, unlike other 'regions' like NI,Wales and Scotland which do have Regionable Assemblies. The whole thing is a bit of a lash up.